Egypt Station, Paul McCartney’s 18th solo album, while catchy and well produced, lacks originality and what made McCartney a pioneer in pop-rock.

Egypt Station is an album of remembrance and nostalgia, but keeps the modern traits of McCartney’s last albums. Throughout his sonic journey, McCartney draws influence from many of today’s most popular genres of music.

Although it is good to hear McCartney being a versatile artist and appealing to a younger generation, it also feels that he has lost what made him so special in the days of the Beatles and chosen to blindly follow musical trends of today.

While McCartney feels his way around today’s popular music formulas, Egypt Station also carries McCartney’s feelings about his past, his present and his future.

In “Who Cares,” McCartney addresses critics throughout his career and offers the token “Who cares what the idiots say? Who cares what the idiots do,” to listeners. The chorus of the song is aimed at all of the people who have hated him and doubted him throughout his 61 year career.

Contrary to McCartney’s defiant nature in “Who Cares,” “People Want Peace” offers a hopeful message to listeners and a superbly uplifting chorus that will have you tapping your foot and singing along. “People Want Peace” is an obvious contender for the best song of the album in terms of the message and replayability, competing only with “Come on to Me.”

As to whether “People Want Peace” or “Come on to Me” are the best songs on the album, that depends on your mood. “People Want Peace” has a toned down guitar presence and focuses heavily on a strong chorus and drums. “Come on to Me” is a typical McCartney rock song, offering plenty of guitar and piano to spice up the track. Although these songs both stick to the trend of McCartney following various musical fads, they are the catchiest of the bunch.

“Despite Repeated Warnings” clocks in at almost seven minutes and starts with a slow intro for almost three minutes that continues into an incredibly catchy rock section that shows off McCartney’s effortless abilities.

As it is a McCartney album, most songs are anchored by a strong bass line that, with the drums, drives the listener through a winding road of songs. “Confidante” has the most defined bass line that offers a much needed dose of low end. 

The ugly duckling of the album comes in the form of “Fuh You.” The song is extremely catchy, but in the way that one can tell it was produced only to be a mass-appeal single seller. “Fuh You” too closely resembles other stadium-rock groups like Imagine Dragons to make it have any weight in Egypt Station.

“Fuh You” feels forced into the bunch for no real reason. The song is full of innuendos and lacks meaning behind it in comparison with other songs on the album.

Other songs on the album include a stripped down gem in “I Don’t Know,” “Hand in Hand,” “Dominoes” and “Back in Brazil.” Excluding “I Don’t Know,” all of these songs are cohesive with the album’s tone but easily forgettable. “Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link” is led on by a Blue Oyster Cult-esque cowbell beat and is led by horns that have been drawn out in various other pop hits from the 2010’s. 

Egypt Station is worth a look, but outside of the initial listening, it is rather lackluster. The songs all start to sound the same and the meanings behind each song lose their sting. Like a cheap knife, Egypt Station slices through headphones with vigor at first, but dulls quickly in comparison to many of today’s new artists.

McCartney has been in the music business for a considerable amount of time, so one would think that with that much musical experience he would know not to follow the fads of today’s pop music and instead experiment with various sounds that haven’t been played out. Egypt Station at its core is a sincere enough album with good intentions, but it falls short in originality and just doesn’t strike as a McCartney classic by any metric.